Howard Culver Movies

While John Carpenter's 1978 horror classic Halloween irrevocably changed the style of horror cinema with its simple but relentlessly tense story, it triggered more than a decade's worth of uninspired, exploitative knock-offs, and one could easily list Halloween II among these failures. As with its predecessor, this film was written and produced by Carpenter and Debra Hill, but the terse style and unbearable suspense of the first film are missing, replaced by a more simplistic stalk-and-slash scenario. Directorial duties were handed over to Rick Rosenthal, whose lack of expertise is quite evident (though he managed to hit his stride two years later with the prison actioner Bad Boys). The plot picks up exactly where the original left off: Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), shaken and injured from her battle with unkillable psycho Michael Myers, is taken to the Haddonfield Hospital for observation, while Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence) continues his desperate search for his monstrous patient. An interesting plot twist has Loomis' investigations revealing Michael's true identity (some of these sequences incorporate footage of young Michael originally shot for the television version of Halloween, which contained scenes hinting at the link between Michael and Laurie). After slashing his way through the town, Myers manages to track Laurie to the hospital, where the remainder of the action takes place. Numerous night-shift employees are slaughtered in a variety of gruesome ways before Loomis catches up with his quarry, leading to an explosive -- and seemingly conclusive -- confrontation. Pleasence is compelling as usual, but Curtis, who made an auspicious debut in the original, is sadly wasted here, her character reduced to shuffling half-drugged through darkened hospital corridors and screaming helplessly. Carpenter's active involvement in the Halloween franchise continued to dwindle steadily from one sequel to the next, getting scarcely a mention by the time producers Hill, Moustapha Akkad and Irwin Yablans revived the series in 1988 for three more sequels. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

In this disaster movie, eight people stranded on a bridge find their lives jeopardized after a collision has caused the unstable structure to collapse. One of the eight is a bank robber on the lam. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Emmy-winning TV movie Friendly Fire was adapted by Fay Kanin from the fact-based book by C.D.B. Bryan. Carol Burnett and Ned Beatty play Peg and Gene Mullen, the parents of a young soldier who is killed in Vietnam. Dissatisfied with the "official" version of their son's death, Peg and Gene conduct a soul-wrenching investigation of their own. Only after months of military stonewalling does the truth come out: their son was accidentally killed by "friendly fire" from American artillery. This revelation leads to Peg Mullen's full-scale embracing of the anti-war movement. Even allowing for the grimness of the story, Carol Burnett's taciturn performance wears on the viewer after a while (one wonders if Peg Mullen ever smiled before her son died). Far better within the framework of the film is the superbly detailed performance of Ned Beatty as Gene. Friendly Fire was originally offered on April 22, 1979, as an ABC Theatre presentation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This made-for-TV biopic covers the life of teenaged tennis star Maureen Catherine Connolly (Glynnis O'Connor), better known as "Little Mo." Making a spectacular debut during the 1951 US Open, 16-year-old Maureen goes on to become the first female ever to win the Grand Slam of Tennis. But in 1953, her carrer was tragically cut short by illness, culminating in the cancer that would take her life at age 34 in 1969. To fill out the film's nearly three-hour running time, writer John McGreevey weaves in a number of non-tennis details, including her love-hate relationship with tennis instructor Eleanor Tennant (Michael Learned) and her romance with Olympic equestrian Norman Brinker (Mark Harmon). Anne Baxter is cast as "Mo"'s mother, replacing Lane Turner. Little Mo first aired September 5, 1978 on NBC. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The success this underdog comedy from director Michael Ritchie almost single-handedly spawned the kids' sports film boom of the 1980s and '90s. When beer-breathed ex-minor-league ball player and professional pool cleaner Morris Buttermaker (Walter Matthau) agrees to coach a little league team in the San Fernando Valley, he soon finds he's in over his head, having inherited an assortment of pint-sized peons and talentless losers. They play well-organized teams and lose by tremendous margins, and the parents threaten to disband the Bears to save the kids (and themselves) any further embarrassment. Buttermaker refuses, though, and brings in a pair of ringers: Amanda (Tatum O'Neal), his ex-girlfriend's tomboy daughter, and Kelly (Jackie Earle Haley), a cigarette-smoking delinquent who happens to be a gifted athlete. With their help, the Bears manage to change their losing ways and qualify for the championship, where they face their arch-rivals, the Yankees. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide

The centerpiece of this tense episode is a hostage situation on the roof of a shopping center. Having bungled a robbery, two armed criminals grab a female hostage and head to the roof. In their efforts to rescue the woman, Officers Reed (Kent McCord) and Malloy (Martin Milner) finds themselves engaging in a deadly war of nerves with the desperate thieves. Ironically, the "helpless" hostage is played by Regina Parton, one of Hollywood's best and bravest stuntwomen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In $1,000,000 Duck, the titular duck is exposed to radiation and begins laying golden eggs, which brings it under the scrutiny of the treasury department, the FBI, and a gang of comic-opera crooks. The cast includes Disney perennials Dean Jones and Joe Flynn, with Sandy Duncan taking over the part usually assumed by someone like Michele Lee or Stefanie Powers. $1,000,000 Duck was directed by Vince McEveety. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This film is another Disney comedy romp that takes place at the ubiquitous Medfield College. The plot kicks in when an interview, in which Professor Quigley (William Schallert) is denied a much-needed computer by apoplectic college president Dean Higgins (Joe Flynn), is broadcast to a student assembly. In order to help Quigley, the students convince rich college benefactor A.J. Arno (Cesar Romero) to donate a computer to the school instead of his usual 20,000-dollar contribution. Dexter (Kurt Russell), the student leader, attempts to repair the computer, but the machine is struck by lightning and transforms Dexter into a human being with the hard drive of the computer. Since the computer's memory is now in Dexter's brain, he now has information on his human memory chip about Arno's illegal gambling operations. When Dean Higgins puts Dexter on a televised competition for a prize of 100,000 dollars to benefit the college, every time the word "applejack" comes up during the game show, it triggers Dexter to regurgitate a rundown of Arno's illegal activities. In order to stop Dexter from exposing him, Arno kidnaps Dexter and hides him at his country estate. Dressing up as housepainters, Dexter's classmates come to Arno's mansion to rescue him. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

The premiere episode of Adam-12 finds veteran LAPD patrol officer Pete Malloy (Martin Milner), on the verge of retirement, reluctantly agreeing to "break in" a new partner, rookie cop Jim Reed (Martin Milner). Still not completely recovered from the death of his former partner, Pete makes no secret of his contempt for Jim's lack of experience as the two officers answer summonses to capture a pair of liquor store robbers, rescue a suffocating baby, and protect a hysterical woman from a runaway salamander. By the end of the shift, Pete begrudgingly admit to a fondness for Jim and a degree of admiration for the youngster's level-headed dedication to his new job...so he decides to stay on the force a little while longer, if only to keep the kid out of trouble. This debut episode was directed by series producer Jack Webb, who also penned the script under a pseudonym. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In his second Untouchables appearance, Lee Marvin is disturbingly convincing as Victor Rate, a brilliant psychopath in cahoots with narcotics kingpin Arnold Stegler (Victor Jory). A cool customer who gets his kicks by deliberately placing himself in dangerous situations, Rate has no qualms about gunning down a government agent in broad daylight, then loading 50,000 pounds of opium onto a truck while the terrified witnesses look on in amazement. To bring this human monster to justice, Elliot Ness (Robert Stack) employs the services of a movie cameraman, a professional lipreader...and Arnold Stegler, who in a futile effort to get himself off the hook ends up signing his own death warrant. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Once again, Perry (Raymond Burr) handles a case way outside his normal "jurisdiction" of Los Angeles, when Ellen Sabin (Jody Lawrence) is charged with murdering her husbnad (Maurice Manson). In fact, Perry proves his client's innocence during the coroner's inquest, in which the key witness is a talking parrot named Casanova (voice supplied by Mel Blanc)! Based on a 1939 novel by Perry Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner, this is allegedly the first dramatic TV episode to feature a chalk outline of the victim's body at the murder scene, though there may have been a few precedents in various live telecasts. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this violent drama, a young juvenile delinquent gets into more trouble when he gets involved with a gang that steals auto parts and resells them on the black market to pay for their beer parties. It looks as if he might actually turn his life around after he meets a good-hearted woman, when he decides to run a final game of chicken against a juvenile delinquent girl who gets killed in the ensuing crash. The terrified boy then takes his girlfriend and splits. He is later shot-down by the police. Later the authorities learn that the boy was set upon his crooked path by policemen who beat him when he was younger. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide